'I worried I'd be the man who blew up Princess Diana'

Princess Diana's minefield walk helped to lead a global ban on the deadly weapons. Photo / AP

When Paul Heslop woke on the morning of January 15 in 1997, one thought dominated his mind: Would he go down in history as the man who killed Diana, Princess of Wales? He was working for an anti-landmine charity in Huambo, Angola, and had spent weeks preparing for a visit from the princess, whose solo walk through a minefield would be seen on television across the world. He had helped to clear a safe path, but there was always the chance she could trip into the vegetation nearby, still littered with deadly mines.

"I thought: 'This is definitely going to be one of the highlights of my life, people will be asking about it for years afterwards,"' he recalls. "But I did have a moment of: 'Oh God, if I f*** this up, I'll be the man who blew up Princess Diana. I'll have infamy forever.' My biggest fear was that a photographer would sneak to get a picture and accidentally detonate a mine. When you're trying to control that many people who are all trying to get the best shot, it's nerve-racking."

Heslop will have been thinking of this as Prince Harry honoured his mother's legacy on Friday by retracing her steps on the fifth day of his tour of southern Africa. Much like Diana, he made the trip alone, parting ways with the Duchess of Sussex and baby Archie in South Africa. But he did not walk through a minefield — the area was made safe some years ago, with homes, shops and a paved road built over what was once a dirt path.

It is a sign of success for Angola, which has destroyed some 100,000 mines since 1994. But about 1200 minefields remain, and Prince Harry has urged the global community to help the south-west African country complete its "long journey, full of heartache and frustration", to safety.

Prince Harry followed the path of Princess Diana in an active Angola minefield. Photo / AP

Heslop approached Diana's trip with trepidation. The Angolan civil war was still not over, and UN peacekeepers had been in Huambo for less than two years. Millions of mines were scattered across the country, and civilians were regularly being blown up. As Halo Trust programme manager, it was his job to show Diana around and help her carry out a controlled detonation. "She walked down the aircraft's stairs and she was obviously quite nervous," he recalls. "It was the first time she'd been to a war zone. The town was heavily bombarded [during the war] and the airport had been shot up — there were craters everywhere. The first thing I had to do was give her a safety briefing. I said: 'There's still unexploded bombs everywhere. Don't pick anything up. If you find you've wandered off the path, stand still.' It was just the basics, but that's still a little scary."

Heslop did not expect quite so much global interest: "Three or four other planes landed and journalists just poured out — double or maybe triple the numbers were we expecting. I'd hosted a visit for [US ambassador to the UN] Madeleine Albright a few weeks earlier, and she'd maybe had 10 journalists with her. That seemed big at the time, but what came off the plane for Diana was just unbelievable."

Harry's schedule included a trip to the Huambo Orthopaedic Centre, visited 22 years ago by Diana. There, she met a girl who had lost a leg after stepping on a mine. "You could see how touched she was," Heslop says. "She was with children whose bodies had been ripped apart by explosives, and it was obvious that as a mother that resonated with her. She was very tender."

Princess Diana uses a remote switch to trigger the detonation of some explosive ordinance dug up by mine sweepers in Huambo, Angola. Photo / AP

The power of the trip lay in the images that would be relayed around the world, and after completing her walk-through, the princess had to go back and do it again because the Red Cross wanted photographs of her wearing their logo, Heslop says.

He thinks Diana's trip was instrumental in persuading Western governments later that year to sign the Ottawa Treaty, which banned the production and trade of landmines, and now counts 164 countries among its signatories. He thinks her death just seven months after the Angola trip amplified the pressure: "That was the image used again and again during those weeks [after her death]. I think it would have been very brave of the British government not to have signed the treaty after she died."

Heslop points out that the "real heroes" are local volunteers clearing the minefields, but he was impressed to see Harry take up her cause.

"One of the challenges of Diana dying was that lots of people were scared of getting involved in case they were accused of just trying to replicate her. Quite a few big names shied away. So the only two people who could pick up the mantle were William or Harry. Harry served in Afghanistan and has seen the consequences of mines and IEDs, and the fact he's chosen to get involved is massive for us."

Amid political crises on both sides of the Atlantic, Harry's mission is unlikely to have the same long-lasting public impression as his mother's did. Nevertheless, it is sure to touch hearts across the world. "It's fantastic," adds Heslop, who now leads the UN's Mine Action campaign. "The battle against landmines is being won."